Montreal singer-songwriter/beat-smith RYAN Playground dropped her emotionally evocative debut EP, elle, a couple months ago. Playground combines delicate vocals, piercing lyrics, and infectiously arranged layers of synths and drums for explorative emotional forays. How she does all of this as a full-time student is baffling, but the young twenty-something certainly has a wunderkind quality about her having played drums, guitar, and violin growing up. Her latest offering comes in the form of a clip for one of the standout tracks on the EP, “Ascension.” She balances dreamy bell tolls and warped high-end start-and-stop synths with deep, menacing synths and rumbling drums as she lightly winds her vocals around them. The matching clip is simple, but easy to get lost in. She fittingly ascends the stairs into a silhouetted dance party and the shadowed, slow-motion movements are entrancing, enhancing the already captivating song. Check it out.

elle is out now.